Chinese President Xi Jinping reads during a speech by Premier Li Qiang at the opening session of the National Peoples Congress, or NPC, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. Charlie Campbell is a correspondent at TIME, based in the Singapore bureau.

As a trade war with the United States begins, China wants to fire up its economy and plans to increase defence spending.

In opening the week-long meeting, Chinese Premier Li Qiang issued his annual Work Report ... NPC follows on the heels of last July’s third CCP plenum, where long-term goals were laid out ...

China said on Wednesday (March 5, 2025) it will increase its defence budget 7.2% this year, as it continues its campaign to build a larger, more modern military to assert its territorial claims and challenge the U.

“DeepSeek adheres to an open-source approach and promotes the widespread application of AI technology globally, which contributes Chinese wisdom to the world. Through the rise of companies like DeepSeek, we can see the innovation and inclusiveness of China’s technological development” -Lou Qinjian, Spokesperson for China’s parliament.